Ingleside revival on track with transit village

Andrew S. Ross

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, October 17, 2010

Photo: Provided By Kate McGee, San Francisco Planning Dept.

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Artists rendering of reconfigured Phelan Loop which will provide market rate housing, public open space, neighborhood-serving retail (including a food market), a gateway to CCSF, and improved transit connection. less

Artists rendering of reconfigured Phelan Loop which will provide market rate housing, public open space, neighborhood-serving retail (including a food market), a gateway to CCSF, and improved transit ... more

Photo: Provided By Kate McGee, San Francisco Planning Dept.

Ingleside revival on track with transit village

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The revitalization of one of San Francisco's more remote neighborhoods takes a concrete step forward in the next two weeks when construction starts on a 173-unit apartment complex on Ocean Avenue in the Ingleside district.

When it's complete, in mid- to late 2012, the residents and their neighbors, including students at City College's main campus next door, should be able to buy their groceries at a 38,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market, located on the ground floor of the Avalon Bay complex, where a Kragen Auto Parts used to be.

Other plans for the area include an additional 1,600 affordable homes, shops, bike lanes, a community park, and a public plaza built out of an upgraded Muni turnaround.

"By the time we're due to open up, it will be a very exciting part of the city," said Adam Smith, Whole Foods' design and construction coordinator.

The driving force behind the changes to the area, more faded than thriving in recent years, is the $50 million Balboa Park Station Area Plan (sfgate.com/ZKLI), which took effect in May after a decade of predictable delays.

"It's refreshing to see the city's master plan come to fruition so quickly after its approval," said Meg Spriggs, development director in the San Francisco office of AvalonBay Communities Inc. of Virginia, the developer of the apartment complex.

The plan got a significant boost in July when the Obama administration kicked in $6.8 million for reconfiguring Muni's Phelan Loop bus turnaround, yards away from the Balboa Park BART Station.

Making the announcement, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHoodsaid the Phelan Loop project "paves the way for landscaped open space, new retail space and new affordable housing, all next to public transportation and within walking distance of a major transit hub."

Similar, though on a smaller scale, to the planned downtown Transbay Transit Center, the project reflects the move toward what city planners call transit-oriented development - or transit villages - built around urban bus and rail lines.

"It's a great opportunity for us to continue our commitment to transit-oriented development," said Spriggs, whose company owns or has a stake in several hundred apartment complexes nationwide. "It represents true infill development in a very dynamic location surrounded by many diverse neighborhoods.

"We see a great opportunity."

More tax dollars at work: Friday was groundbreaking day for Oakland International Airport's brand-new air traffic control tower, courtesy of $33.2 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money.

That's nice to know, as is the use of solar panels to power the tower and its electrical systems, the installation of geothermal heating and rainwater storage systems, not to mention low-flow toilets, faucets and showers.

Skill building: Building Skills Partnership, a statewide nonprofit affiliated with California's janitors union, SEIU Local 1877, received a $372,000 grant from Microsoft Corp. this month to expand its language, job skills and computer literacy programs for janitors and other building service workers in Silicon Valley ( www.buildingskills.org).

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